Securiton has exported alarm systems under the management of Manuel Spreng from the very beginning. However, this was not done by setting up branch offices or establishing representative offices in other countries, but instead by direct contact with Swiss companies operating abroad. For example, a Securiton intrusion alarm system was installed and later serviced at a Swiss department store in Accra, the capital of Ghana, back in 1950. An initial review from 1987 shows how things went on from here.
Back in 1950, a Securiton intrusion alarm system was installed and later serviced at a Swiss department store in Accra, the capital of Ghana. The same was true in 1968 at the world-famous Gold Museum in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. Since 1958, Securiton has also regularly supplied material to South Africa, where a former employee operates a company specialising in alarm systems.
Systematic export activity began when a sales office was opened in Milan in 1967. Under the constant management of Mr F. Mantero, this office has consistently enjoyed great success – most notably in 1979 with the order of 300 intrusion alarm systems for all the branch offices of a major Italian bank.
In 1980, the second sales office abroad started operations in the West German village of Kappelrodeck. In Germany, however, our fire alarm systems are predominantly sold by our subsidiary Hekatron, which specialises in fire detectors.
Companies are regularly entrusted as our representatives in other Western European countries, plus Singapore, Taiwan and Australia.
In addition, there are numerous opportunities for Swiss companies operating abroad to install Securiton systems in their projects there, as has been the case in several Arab countries in recent years.
Our opportunities abroad lie primarily in the manufacture of systems for the solution of special problems, i.e. in certain market niches.
Various road tunnels in Austria, Germany and Belgium have been equipped with the Transafe fire alarm system, including the Arlberg and Tauern tunnels in Austria and the Frankfurt Airport Tunnel in Germany. A new paint line at Porsche in Germany was also equipped with a Transafe system. In the event of a fire, the fire alarm system automatically actuates the CO2 extinguishing system here.
The versatile RAS 51/52 aspirating smoke detection system is also used for early warning in the event of a fire. Projects include the large maintenance hall for jumbo jets at Frankfurt Airport and – after its complete destruction by fire in 1984 – the newly built cold storage centre in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg. RAS systems are also used to monitor the cableways at the Würgassen nuclear power plant in West Germany and sleeper carriages on the Australian railways.
Our PSS 4044 personal protection system with portable transmitter has also been used abroad on various occasions. It enables people to wirelessly trigger an alarm signal as a call for help in emergencies, for example in banks, embassies, prisons, hospitals, etc. The PSS 4044 is often also used in industry for occupational safety at isolated workplaces with increased risks.
Our systems abroad have seen several successes in practical testing. For example, a fire alarm was triggered recently during the commissioning of a large fire alarm system at a bank in Milan. The Securiton technician on site discovered the onset of a smouldering fire in a transformer room. Thanks to immediate firefighting measures, major damage was prevented.
In January, a gang of burglars tried to destroy the alarm control panel of our system in preparation for an attack on a bank vault in Rome. Although it was able to disable the local alarm, it was not able to prevent simultaneous remote alerting to the bank’s head office in Milan. From here, the police in Rome were notified and were able to arrest the burglars at the scene of the crime.